Counselor had 'free rein' to record sex in Salinas High office, lawyer says

SALINAS >> A Salinas High School counselor who secretly recorded students having sex in his office and molested another was left unsupervised by both the school and the nonprofit center he worked for, one victim's attorney says.

Gilbert Olivares, 36, admitted earlier this month to child pornography and molestation charges as well using a hidden cell phone to record students in his office. He pleaded no contest to all 56 counts filed against him, and agreed to a stipulated sentence of 16 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for May 28.

Los Angeles attorney David Ring has filed suit against Olivares, the Salinas Union School District and Sunrise House on behalf of a then 14-year-old boy who was molested by Olivares.

"No one was watching him," Ring said, while Olivares pulled students from class to his counseling office inside the school. "The guy had free rein to do whatever he wanted."

Ring is a prominent attorney specializing in school molestation cases, for which he has won multi-million-dollar jury awards. He said the amount of damages he's seeking in this case is "not insignificant."

Olivares was employed by Sunrise House. The family counseling and crisis center placed him in the school, where he worked for five years before he was arrested on campus in March 2012.

Ring says the school and Sunrise House each placed responsibility on the other for overseeing Olivares' activities.

"They both kind of said, 'He's your guy,'" Ring said.

Olivares knew he could invite the students to have sex in his office because officials didn't "set foot in there," he said.

District Supervisor Tim Vanoli did not respond to a message left for him Monday afternoon.

Sunrise House executive director Jim Rear declined to comment.

Right after Olivares' arrest, then-school principal Sascha Heckmann said staff began conducting "facility walks" to ensure student contact occurs in public areas.

Heckmann left the school three months after Olivares' arrest and became principal of the Shanghai American School in China. Ring said Olivares' role as a counselor who was supposed to help troubled kids has had a lasting effect on the boy he represents, who is now 16.

Salinas police say they learned of Olivares' activities when the boy's sister found sexually explicit text messages from Olivares on her brother's phone and notified authorities.

The counselor preyed on at-risk teens trying to turn their lives around, Ring said, and "did nothing to discourage this kid from continuing to get into trouble." Instead, he said, Olivares was "pressuring him to do things he didn't want to do. . . He just sent the kid into a downward spiral because of all the stuff he was doing to him."

Ring said Olivares offered students money and gifts to share photos of themselves and to have sex in his office.

The boy's mother, who asked not to be named, made a statement through Ring's office.

"Gilbert Olivares was supposed to counsel and help my young son," she said. "Instead he took advantage of him, manipulated him, and molested him. My son has had a very difficult time with this and continues to struggle every day with this."